Responding to his dismissal, Keillor posted a statement to his website.

"I've been fired over a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard. It's some sort of poetic irony to be knocked off the air by a story, having told so many of them myself, but I'm 75 and don't have any interest in arguing about this," the statement read.

"I cannot in conscience bring danger to a great organization I've worked hard for since 1969. I am sorry for all the poets whose work I won't be reading on the radio and sorry for the people who will lose work on account of this. But my profound feeling is that of gratitude, especially to my wife Jenny, and for this painful experience that has brought us even closer together."

The 75-year-old created the folksy variety program in 1974 and hosted it for decades until he retired last year.

MPR will terminate its contracts with Keillor and his media companies, stop rebroadcasting Keillor-hosted episodes of 'A Prairie Home Companion', and change the name of the show's current iteration, reports The Guardian. (ANI)